Protección Social

Estableciendo pisos de protección social
y sistemas integrales de seguridad social

Viet Nam

Publicaciones

Ver todo

Situación y prioridades

Situación de la protección social

Viet Nam has a relatively well-developed social protection system, including a social insurance (SI) system that covers a wide range of contingencies, as well as a social assistance (SA) system. However, SI and SA policies have been independently designed and implemented over the years, making the expansion of coverage and effective financing of social protection a challenge.

As of 2024, compulsory SI covers around 42.7 per cent of the working age population, while voluntary SI only covers around 4.8 per cent, with a more limited set of contingencies. Investment in social protection (excluding health) remains at around 4 per cent of GDP, significantly below both the regional and global averages. As a result, the coverage of social assistance, both in terms of beneficiaries (around 3.5 million) and monthly cash benefit level, remains insufficient, despite an increase in social assistance benefits of almost 80 per cent in nominal terms between 2020 and 2024.

Viet Nam has made strong progress towards achieving universal health coverage, with social health insurance (SHI) covering around 94 per cent of the population as of 2024. However, many people still face financial hardship when paying for healthcare, as out-of-pocket costs make up 40 per cent of current health spending. As a result, 8.5 per cent of households fall into poverty each year due to medical expenses.

See also ISSA country profiles Visit the Social Protection Monitor

Current crisis and emerging shocks

Viet Nam’s development trajectory is increasingly shaped by climate change and disaster risks. The country is among those most vulnerable to climate impacts, facing rising temperatures, more frequent and intense extreme weather events, sea-level rise, and growing water scarcity. These environmental pressures are already affecting economic development, degrading ecosystems, and undermining livelihoods across the country. Over the past decade alone, climate-related disasters have caused significant losses, leaving more than 9,500 people dead or missing and generating economic damages estimated at around 1.5 per cent of GDP annually. These impacts continue to threaten livelihoods and living conditions for a large share of the population. In this context, integrating social protection with disaster risk management and response offers an important opportunity to provide timely and predictable support, reduce reliance on ad hoc relief, and strengthen resilience among the most vulnerable populations.

In response, the ILO has supported recovery and resilience-building efforts in several ways. This includes direct support to cash-for-work programmes in some of the most affected areas, where awareness raising on social protection was integrated into programme activities. The ILO also contributed to the United Nations Viet Nam Multi-Sector Assessment (VMSA) Report for Typhoon Recovery, leading the chapter on Employment, Livelihoods and Social Protection. In addition, an upcoming ILO report on social protection and water scarcity in Viet Nam highlights the critical role that the country’s social protection system can play in addressing the growing impacts of climate change and strengthening resilience among vulnerable workers and communities.

Prioridades del gobierno

The Party, the Government and social partners in Viet Nam remain dedicated and focused on strengthening the country's social protection system. This is in line with trends observed in recent decades, and includes in 2025:

  • Implementation of the new Social Insurance Law (2024).
  • Revision of the Employment Law (which covers unemployment insurance).
  • Implementation of Party Resolution 42 on Social Policies.
  • Development of a new Social Assistance Law.
  • Revision of the Law on Occupational Health and Safety (which governs employment injury insurance).

Proyectos y programas de la OIT

Ver todo

Resultados

The ILO has provided significant technical support and capacity building to the Party, the National Assembly, the Government, social partners and other relevant stakeholders through key social protection reforms which have taken place in recent years:

  • 2026: The revised Employment Law takes effect.
    • The Law strengthens provisions to promote employment for persons with disabilities (PWDs) by reinforcing non-discrimination and equal opportunity, prohibiting discriminatory practices. It also promotes decent and accessible working conditions, ensuring jobs are adapted to workers’ health, abilities and specific disabilities. The Law introduces incentives for inclusive employers, including financial support, tax exemptions, preferential loans, land rent reductions, and the possibility of reducing unemployment insurance contributions for up to 12 months for enterprises that hire PWDs.
    • The Employment Law also introduces important reforms to the unemployment insurance (UI) scheme. Mandatory coverage is expanded to include workers with fixed-term contracts of one month or longer (reduced from the previous three-month threshold), as well as part-time, short-term, gig and other non-traditional workers whose monthly earnings meet the compulsory social insurance wage floor. In addition, the Law reduces the waiting period for UI benefits from 16 days to 11 days, enabling faster access to income support for unemployed workers.
  • 2025 (July): The Government began implementing ILO-supported administrative regulations under the revised Social Insurance Law, integrating contributory and non-contributory pensions under a unified legal framework and extending non-contributory pension coverage to an additional 1.6 million older persons.
  • 2024: The revision of the Law on Social Insurance was finalized, introducing structural changes to the pension system, including the integration of contributory and non-contributory pensions under the same legal framework, the establishment of a “mixed” pension for workers with shorter contribution histories, reduced minimum contribution periods, and lower eligibility ages for pension benefits.
    • The revised law also extended mandatory social insurance coverage to new groups of workers, such as household business owners, part-time workers and non-salaried managers, significantly broadening the legal scope of coverage.
    • Amendments adopted in 2024 increased the base value for calculating social assistance benefits by nearly 40 per cent, reinforcing adequacy for millions of recipients, and lowered the eligibility age for social (non-contributory) pensions from 80 to 75 years of age.

Other notable results with the support of the ILO include:

  • Employment Law (unemployment insurance reform) (2025)
  • New Social Insurance Law (2024)
  • Government Decree 76 on Social Assistance (2024)
  • Party Resolution 42 on Social Policies (2023)
  • Government Decree 20 on Social Assistance Reform (2021)
  • Increase in the retirement age (2019)
  • Party Resolution 28 on Social Insurance Reform (MPSIR) (2018)
  • The Road Map for Social Assistance Reform and Development (MPSARD) (2017)
  • Party Resolution 15 on Social Policies (2015)
  • Revision of the Social Health Insurance Law (2014)
  • Revision of the Social Insurance Law (2014)

In addition to these achievements, the ILO continues to provide support to all stakeholders on the implementation of the policy reforms described above.

Ver todo

Partnerships

These results were made possible through financing support from the European Union, Governments of Australia, Ireland and Japan, donors to the UN Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions, the Multistakeholder Engagement to Implement the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions and the World Bank Social Protection and Jobs Compass (M-GA) and the ILO Regular Budget Supplementary Account (RBSA).

Brechas en el financiamiento / Apoyar a la OIT

Support the ILO

Espacios de trabajo

Ver todo

Multimedia

Ver todo